Boroughmuir Thistle celebrate their 10th year as a club

As part of the start of celebrating ten years since Boroughmuir Thistle FC was formed, the club is holding an U13 girls football festival at their home at Meggetland Sport Complex EH14 1AS on Sunday 26th February 2017.

Four teams from Thistle will be attending the festival and for the second year running they will be entering four U13 teams in to the SWF regional leagues.

“This almost more than anything represents the progress we have made in ten years” says club secretary Chris Findlay. “When we started, with the invaluable help of now Scottish FA Regional Manager David Drummond, there were only two U13 girls’ teams in Edinburgh. Now not only do we supply four (and three at U11) our pathway provided more players to the U14 Regional Squads this year than any other club.”

Refreshingly the club operates a “coach not approach” philosophy and still draws the majority of its players from the four local primary school teams that helped create the club.

For players, at minimum, every age group is trained at least once a week by a UEFA level C coach or higher. By providing this professional nurturing environment together with terrific volunteers on and off the pitch, Boroughmuir Thistle, the largest girls and women’s club in the region, is clearly a fantastic destination for girls in Edinburgh to play football.

Reaccredited the SFA Community Quality Mark recently, the one female only club in the South East to hold it, the club is also proud that it has uniquely provided an unbroken pathway for girls from u9 to adult over the last ten years. This is a great reassurance for any potential new player.

The club has provided players at every representative National level from Under 15 to A squad and works assiduously with players, their parents and National staff to create a balanced holistic individual development pathway for players committed to playing at the very top level.

In their first team year this year they have Hannah Michie and Caitlin Shaw who at ten and eight years old, attended the first ever training session and they are now playing with former Scottish Internationalist Kelly Menzies who first joined us the club as part of its successful SWPL team.

The club gave Chris Roberts, now Hibs Ladies Head Coach, his first job in women’s club football and one of their feeder primaries provided Willie Kirk (now head coach at Bristol City LFC in the professional English WSL 1) with the opportunity to coach his first sessions of female football.

The festival on Sunday runs from 9am to 1pm with four pitches running, refreshments stall with hot drinks, a barbecue and home baking. The festival is followed at 1:15pm by the first team’s first league game of the season at home to Glasgow City Development.

For further information on how to join Boroughmuir Thistle FC visit their website: www.boroughmuirfc.com..